Murder With My Husband - 303. The Fake Uber Homicide - The Murder of Samantha Josephson

Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. Welcome back to another episode.

Starting point is 00:00:13 Happy Monday. I hope you are having a great start to the week. So I think for my 10 seconds real quick, instead of a hot take this week, someone, you know, someone tried to cut me today at the Dutch Rose Line. Someone, someone try to cut me. I don't know. I don't, I don't know how else to say it.

Starting point is 00:00:33 I don't care if I'd Karened out. Someone tried to cut me today. I'm going to explain this to you guys real quick. We're in line in Dutch Bros. One car, two car, three car, lane split, okay? The person in the right lane, boom, goes. Naturally, first of all, I was there before the car behind the other right car. Naturally, my turn, left lane.

Starting point is 00:00:55 Boom. I, this guy looks at me, looks at me, looks at us. us and then just says nope just goes just starts going boom instantly i honked my horn he looked over i rolled down the window i put my drinks up i said hey we already got our drinks we're going to go in front of you and he just stared at me he went like this and i said also by the way there's a line i was pissed right was it not kind of crazy that he tried to do that babe we need to weigh on this Guys, mind you, mind you, we were just halfway through the episode when Garrett remembered this 10 seconds and demanded that we go back and retell it.

Starting point is 00:01:38 I am not a Karen type of person. I actually despise them. So if you are a Karen, you're listening, I'm sorry. But I'm also a, we got to follow the rules type of person. So when someone tries cutting me in a line, it's not happening. And the worst part was it's like early in the morning. I don't know why Dutch didn't have their music going, but it was dead quiet outside. I was like, dude, what are you doing?

Starting point is 00:02:02 And Garrett's just hons his huge truck horn. He looked at me like deer in the headlight. He's like, I'm going in front of you. I was like, no, you're not. Guess who, guess who didn't go in front of me? That guy did not go in front of me. All I'm saying, don't cut me. Don't cut me.

Starting point is 00:02:18 If you ever see me in public, can you try cutting me, I want to find your IP address and you're never going to be to listen to the podcast again. that's my 10 seconds let's get back into the episode but actually starting the episode for you guys get into today's case our sources for this episode are what's my name dot org women's space dot org people com NBC philadelphia dot com WIS tv.com crime and investigation dot com NBC news CBS news K-Fox TV the independent dot com Fox Carolina dot com the state dot com the cinemaholic mirror.co dot UK ABC News dot com, CNN, apennies.com, and New Yorktimes.com. There's a lot of things in this world that we just implicitly trust, things that have

Starting point is 00:03:04 become such a part of our daily lives and routines that we don't even question them anymore. For example, say that you're booking a doctor's appointment. Do you really verify their credentials and certifications before you walk into the office? I do. I don't. I don't even know. or like if you're posting your photos on Instagram, have you read the fine print on the information of what you're supposed to be sharing,

Starting point is 00:03:28 the policies? No. How about getting into a ride share vehicle? Are you diligent about checking the license plate to make sure, you know, it's the model, it's the correct one. Do you always make sure the driver matches their pictures and knows your first name? In a rapidly changing world, full of technological updates, it's these little things that fall by the wayside.

Starting point is 00:03:51 And not because we forget necessarily, but because we just trust. We trust that these systems work and that the people operating within them have good intentions. But today's story is proof that that is not always the case. Some people take advantage of these tools that we've been told we can rely on. And they use these resources to prey upon people, to trick people, even to scam them. And in some rare cases, even to take another person's life. Today I want you to meet 21-year-old Samantha Josephson. In 2019, she is a senior at the University of South Carolina,

Starting point is 00:04:28 and she's majoring in political justice. And she's only months away from getting the degree that she has worked her butt off for. Samantha's not from South Carolina originally. She's actually from New Jersey. She was born in the picturesque little college town of Princeton, basically the Hogwarts of the tri-state area. But she was raised about 13 miles away from there in another smallish town called Robbinsville, New Jersey.

Starting point is 00:04:59 Now growing up, it was just her, Samantha, and her older sister, Sydney, and then her parents, Macy and Seymour. And while Samantha loved being close to her family, she had always dreamed of life outside of her small New Jersey town. So when she was accepted to University of, of South Carolina in 2015, she begged her parents to let her travel 670 miles to college. Now, they were hesitant to say yes at first.

Starting point is 00:05:29 The South was a lot different than the Northeast. They weren't sure how their young daughter would fare in another part of the country that she hadn't spent much time in. But Samantha had always been reliable, responsible, respectful. She always made the best choices for herself. and her parents knew life down there would be no different. So in the fall of 2015, they helped her pack her bags and they made the drive down south where Samantha would start her new life as an undergrad.

Starting point is 00:06:00 And as expected, Samantha took to it like a fish to water. She joined a sorority, making dozens of new sisters in Alpha Gamma Delta. And with Greek life being a big part of the school's culture, that actually opened her up to even more connections and friendships. At one point, she even studied abroad in Barcelona, traveling through Europe to places like Paris and then Madrid. And before she knew it, her college experience was starting to come to a close. By her senior year in 2018, Samantha was thinking about what life after graduation would look

Starting point is 00:06:38 like. And for her, there was only one answer. Law school. She had been offered scholarships from both Rutgers in New Jersey, which would take her back closer to home, but she ultimately chose Drexel University in Philadelphia. Also, honestly, not too far away from her parents. Samantha honestly was excited about being closer to her family again, and plus her boyfriend, Greg Corbishly, who she had met at USC and started dating back in the spring of 2017. was also planning to attend Rutgers School of Law. But first, he was going to spend a little time in Charleston, South Carolina, to reset.

Starting point is 00:07:23 So all of this to say, the two of them both were going to go to law school, they had a bright future ahead of them. Now, Greg called Samantha the love of his life. He was in it for the long haul. And so by May of 2019, when Garrett and I were getting married, there was a lot worth celebrating for Samantha over in her life, which was exactly what she was doing on the night of the 28th in downtown Columbia, just a few miles from the USC campus.

Starting point is 00:07:53 So that evening, Samantha, like a lot of the kids at USC, went to a collection of bars and restaurants down in an area of Columbia, known as five points. And Samantha spent the night with a few friends at one particular spot called the Bird Dog Bar. It's having a few drinks, blowing up. some steam from the week. And they treated the outing, honestly, as a sort of celebration for Samantha having gotten into law school. And by this point, she was in the final stretch. Graduation was just around the corner. Samantha could practically smell the freedom. But around 2 a.m., the bar was starting to shut down. And honestly, as was Samantha.

Starting point is 00:08:35 She was exhausted from the long week and decided to say goodbye before the rest of her friends. Now, Greg, her boyfriend, wasn't there that night. He was actually already down in Charleston getting ready for his post-graduation move. But the two spoke on the phone a few times throughout the night and they were texting. And around 2 a.m., she told Greg she was leaving the bar. He told her to get home safe and said he would track her location. And then Samantha left the bar. She went outside.

Starting point is 00:09:07 She got lost in the crowd of dozens of other college students who were emptying out the other bars. And as promised, Greg watched her little blue dot on his Find My Friends app, basically travel along a familiar road home. And then several minutes into the drive, her location stopped at a place called Montgomery Avenue in Rosewood, South Carolina. Now, when Greg noticed Samantha's phone didn't make it back to her address when it probably should have, he tried calling her. But there was no answer.

Starting point is 00:09:42 So he called one of Samantha's roommates. When they said that Samantha had left alone from the bar, he told them he noticed her phone had stopped in that Rosewood area. So the roommate and a friend hopped into a car and went to look for Samantha and her phone in that same vicinity. but they couldn't find it. Now, both she and Greg assumed, okay, maybe Samantha had left it in the Uber and then had not gone home and just had like continued the night somewhere else. So

Starting point is 00:10:17 the roommate and Greg are like, okay, let's just get back to this in the morning. Like it's early hours at this point. We're tired. You're tired. The roommate goes home to get some sleep. But when they wake up in the morning, Samantha is still not home. And so at this point, everyone's like, wait, this is actually pretty bad. So that's when Samantha's roommate actually called 911 to report her missing. And 911 sent a sled agent from the South Carolina law enforcement division over to speak with the roommate who told them Samantha had a shift at a local bar that morning. She was supposed to work at a spot called the Liberty Tap Room and Grill, less than three miles from where she was actually last seen the night before. But she never came home. She didn't show up for

Starting point is 00:11:07 her shift. So the agent goes to Samantha's place of work and they're like, yeah, she really did never show, which is weird. Because as we've heard many times before on this show, it is just very unlike Samantha. And then you add in the fact that the boyfriend had been tracking her location. Yeah, that's scary. And it had like gone off rail and then just not went home. That would be so scary. That'd be horrible. And everyone in her life is trying to tell the agents at this point, like, she's extremely responsible.

Starting point is 00:11:38 She takes her commitment seriously. She wouldn't have done this. So when her parents also hear that she didn't come home last night and had missed her shift that morning, they too instantly know something is wrong. So they hop in the car almost immediately and start making the 10.000, 10-hour drive down to South Carolina. Now, meanwhile, SLED actually transfers the case over to the Columbia Police Department, and they put out a bolo, be on the lookout, for Samantha Josephson.

Starting point is 00:12:11 But after five hours into their drive, the Josephsons actually get a call from someone at the Columbia Police Department, and it's not a reassuring one. they pretty much just ask the parents, hey, when is your ETA? And then they hang up. They don't give the family any details. They don't really ask why they're asking. Okay. But it is enough for the Josephsons to think this has to be bad news.

Starting point is 00:12:37 Like, why would they ask when we're going to be there, but then not tell us anything else? And unfortunately, their instincts are correct. Because that morning, about 14 hours after Samantha was last seen at, at the bar. There's some turkey farmers out in a field in New Zion, South Carolina. This is 65 miles away from Columbia. And as they're out searching for turkeys, they stumble upon a human body. Oh, gosh, man. Now, police are called to this crime scene, and they find it's a female who has been stabbed repeatedly. She has scratches all over her face and body as if she was dragged out here to the middle of nowhere.

Starting point is 00:13:22 Her wounds are actually so severe. Police are having a hard time identifying her. It hasn't been that long, but her face is kind of unidentifiable. Now, unfortunately, there's nothing else at the crime scene that can help them find the killer, but they are fairly certain

Starting point is 00:13:40 that these are the remains of the missing 21-year-old, Samantha Josephson, that everyone had got the notification about that morning. I don't know what's worse when we cover these cases and, I don't know, it's all horrible. You never find them or you do. Yeah, you never find them or you find them quick like this within hours.

Starting point is 00:13:59 And it's like, we found her, but he's not alive. And it's not like, oh. Is it nice to have that closure? I mean, at that point, it probably doesn't even matter. It's probably just all so effed up. I don't even know if you would know unless you go through it. Horrible. I will say, it's, you know, not only are they being told, hey, you know,

Starting point is 00:14:19 your daughter is dead. They're saying, hey, your daughter was brutally murdered. Like, most likely tortured. So they're like, hey, we believe this is your missing college student. And it is something that's confirmed to the police from where her body was found when her parents finally do reach the police station in South Carolina later that day. Now, meanwhile, the Columbia police are terrified that there's a predator on the loose. And at any moment, another life might be claimed. And this is just not something people are used to, especially because most of the people here are college students.

Starting point is 00:14:56 They are vulnerable. They are ambitious. And they're trusting. I feel like you're always so trusting in college. Yeah, honestly, I would agree. I feel like when I was in college, I had zero. You just. I was stupid.

Starting point is 00:15:12 You go anywhere with anyone to any house. Maybe it's changed now with a lot more information that's out there. This was the time we were in college, though. Correct. But, I mean, it's been, what, a long time? Yeah. Yeah. So police move quickly on trying to track the killer down.

Starting point is 00:15:28 And meanwhile, the autopsy reveals its own set of clues. Pathologist find that Samantha's been stabbed. Prepare yourself approximately 120 times. No way. No way. And, you know, I'm going to go into a little bit of, depth of where these stab wounds are, so just skip 10 seconds if you don't want to hear. But the reason she was so unidentifiable is because several of these fatal wounds had been to her brain and neck.

Starting point is 00:16:03 Oh my gosh. No. She also had a severed hyoid bone, which as we've talked about before could be an indicator of strangulation. Many of the stab wounds, though, were through her hands and arms, which did show that Samantha probably was trying to fight these stab wounds, which is how she even got them on her hands and arms. She obviously tried hard to fend off her attacker. Now, just to give you a scope of how bad her injuries were, when pathologists tried to take a DNA sample, they were having a hard time finding enough blood in her body to like get the. the DNA from because so much of it had drained out from 120 stabs. Now, luckily by this point, the Columbia police had already gotten a few good leads

Starting point is 00:16:55 on her killer. Because when police spoke with Samantha's friends, they learned that as she was leaving the bar the night before, she had called an Uber to take her home. Samantha's parents always encouraged her to be careful about drinking and driving. Her father even let her sink his credit card to her Uber account. So she would never have to worry about spending the money and making the choice. She could always just get an Uber instead of driving drunk. So that is exactly what Samantha did. When she got too tired to keep the party going, she just ordered an Uber on her phone.

Starting point is 00:17:32 Except what police learn is her Uber driver never actually picked her up the night before. there were tons of other ride share drivers driving to pick up clients outside the bar, especially because every bar was closing in this area. But the Uber Samantha called, told police that he never actually picked her up. She never got in his car. In fact, the driver said he couldn't find her, so he just canceled the ride and chalked it up to time lost. Maybe she decided to go back in and not leave. so investigators go back to the bird dog where Samantha was last seen and they asked to see the camera footage from outside the bar the night before

Starting point is 00:18:18 sure enough we have some cameras they see Samantha she's standing by herself in a sea of people outside the bar waiting for her Uber to obviously pick her up now the car that she had ordered that she was waiting for was a dark colored Dodge and you can actually see Samantha in this footage approach a car, realize that it's not her Uber, and then go back to the curb. But clearly at this point, this situation is chaotic. It's confusing. Lots of people are ordering

Starting point is 00:18:55 Ubers. I mean, honestly, if you've ever ordered an Uber at like an airport or a busy place. Like I think if you've been to, let's say Vegas, for example. Yes. Payton and I have been a couple times. And when we order an Uber there, it's a nightmare. Because people, drivers just roll up and are like, are you for me? Are you for me? So it's after this first mix up that another dark colored car pulls up and Samantha walks over, opens the back door and gets in and then the vehicle drives off. Now obviously when police are watching this, their first thought is, but she never got in her Uber.

Starting point is 00:19:33 So what car is that? Who picked her up? Now a few things about this car in the footage. First, it's a Chevy Impala, not a Dodge, like Samantha was supposedly waiting for. But not everyone's familiar with a car's make and model. She may have seen the color, walked up. He said yes, thought this is my ride. Another detail that's frustrating, the windows of this car are extremely tinted.

Starting point is 00:19:58 There's no way to make out the driver of the vehicle or see if there's even anyone else inside, riding as a passenger, in the front. But now police at least have a vehicle. vehicle to search for. And as they look at more security footage around the bar and five points in general, they see that this Chevy had actually been driving around the area quite a bit that night, especially as the bars were letting out. At one point, it almost seems to take notice of Samantha because the car passes her, does a U-turn about a block away, and then comes back around and pulls up right in front of her. And while police can't see inside the vehicle like a car, I said, they assume it probably doesn't take Samantha very long to realize that she's not in the Uber

Starting point is 00:20:45 that she had called. That makes me sick to my stomach. I cannot imagine being trapped. Because here's the thing. This car immediately starts driving in the opposite direction from her dorm. So from the get-go, he's already driving an odd way. And after that, remember, they're trying to track Samantha through security footage, the trail on Samantha takes a suspicious turn. Her phone is turned off about 20 minutes into that car ride. And then about 45 miles away from the Columbia area where she was picked up, there's activity of someone trying to use her debit card nine different times. So police head down to the area and they pull up the security video from the ATM.

Starting point is 00:21:36 And they find on that video a man standing alone. It is not Samantha using her card. He's wearing a bandana around his head and a hoodie with the drawstring pulled tight around his face. He's also wearing gloves, so they're not going to find any fingerprints on the machine. But that's not the final place he's actually spotted that night. His car is also seen passing through a Wendy's drive-thru in the area. So police go to the Wendy's. They talked to the people that work there and they said,

Starting point is 00:22:09 oh yeah, we remember this car that night. We actually got a peek into the back seat of the car. It was covered with a white sheet. It like stood out to us. We noticed it. Man. And they tell police there was no girl in the car.

Starting point is 00:22:25 There was no sign of Samantha anywhere in the vehicle. So I will say I will be very shocked if it's not someone that she knows or the family knows or friends know just because of how intimate the murder was being stabbed them many times usually doesn't happen usually right it's when it's a crime of i mean i guess you can say passion like that where there's stabbings multiple times that many times it's usually like out of anger it's definitely feeling like if it's not someone she knows it's more serial killer route than someone just looking for money correct so So less than 24 hours after Samantha Josephson disappeared, police have already discovered her body and the make and model of the car that took her and a lot of security footage.

Starting point is 00:23:15 They know it was a dark Chevy Impala. So that night, a Columbia police officer named Jeffrey Kraft starts his shift. Now, obviously, he knows Samantha is missing, but he hasn't heard news that her body was found earlier that day yet. So what he's looking for tonight on his shift is any sign of the Impala that they are looking for. And it is actually a lot easier than you would ever imagine. Because around 2.30 a.m., this police officer is cruising about when he spots a car fitting the description of the car they're looking for. So he throws his lights on and pulls the car over. Now, as he approaches, he sees a man and a woman inside this Impala.

Starting point is 00:24:00 And the car reeks of marijuana. So Kraft, the police officer, asks the driver for his license and registration. The man says he doesn't have it with him. So they have him get out of the car. Now, he doesn't put up a fight at first. But when police tell him, oh, the reason we actually pulled you over was not because you, like, broke any driving laws. It was because your vehicle matches the description of a suspect's vehicle that we're looking for. This driver takes off running.

Starting point is 00:24:30 They tell him this and he just books it. Instantly folds. This leads to a full-on pursuit and eventually the guy is caught and apprehended. But in the meantime, that female, you know, I would love to know how many people have run away from police and like evaded it forever. And I'm talking about on foot, not in a car or like on a bike. You ran on foot. They never learned your name. No, it's, I bet you, if you take the last 30 years, I bet.

Starting point is 00:25:00 You bet you it's got to be 0.0001%. Because what are the chances they're driving a car that's not linked to them or someone that they know that's going to tattle on them? I don't know. So he takes off running. Like I said, he gets apprehended. But in the meantime, the female passenger is actually still sitting in the car frozen in fear. And when police ask her what the driver's name was, she tells them Nate, aka 24-year-old Nathaniel Rowland. He was from a tiny little town near New Zion, South Carolina, where Samantha's body was found.

Starting point is 00:25:38 Now, New Zion is small. It is not a place you would ever seek out unless you were familiar with the area. So this is a major red flag to detectives. Which, just a quick insert here, this is so interesting to me because I've actually lately been doing a lot of research on the serial killer, Israel Keys. Now, if you don't know, Israel Keys would basically drive around America and find extremely small towns. He would then kidnap someone from a different area, drive them to that small town, find an abandoned house and kill them there for the exact reason that police jumped to who would ever kill here unless they knew of this area. So he would do it to trick. But in

Starting point is 00:26:26 this case, police are doing the same thing. Like, who would know? of this area. It has to be someone who grew up around here. So that's what is actually happening in this case. This is a major red flag to detectives. And what's even more worrisome is that if Nathaniel is the one who killed Samantha, it means he dropped her body off there last night and then drove back to Columbia to the five points area, basically the scene of the kidnapping that same day and got pulled over by police. So what's he doing, hunting? Looking for another victim? I'm also a big believer in karma. Like, what goes around comes around. This is all really strange, and it was looking worse and worse for Nathaniel as police examined his car. Now, inside, they find a set of keys with a pink

Starting point is 00:27:11 key chain. And when they ask the passenger if they're hers, she says no. Also on that key ring, a USB drive that's given to all of the students, college students at USC. And a key that's a key that labeled room. They also find a pink cell phone in his car that doesn't belong to either him or the passenger, but the most damning evidence is a female footprint on the window in the back seat, almost like someone was trying to kick their way out of the car. And there is a lot of blood in the backseat and trunk of his car. There's no way this girl didn't know about it or...

Starting point is 00:27:52 We'll get there. Alongside with a bunch of cleaning products and bleach found in the car. And that's when they realized they actually likely just found the place where Samantha Josephson was killed. And then her body was dumped. They also realized Nathaniel probably had his child safety locks on in his back seat, which was what likely kept Samantha from being able to get out and run away. Luckily, police now had the 24-year-old Nathaniel D. Rowland, in custody, and soon he was charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder.

Starting point is 00:28:29 Now, it seems like it's going to be open and shut, but why? Problem was. Nathaniel from the beginning insisted that someone else had borrowed his car the night before. He wouldn't name names that I'm not ratting, but I did not do this. It was an angle his defense attorneys would also take. There's no footage of him in any of the surveillance. it's just his car. Now, prosecutors knew this was going to be tricky. There was nothing they could actually prove that Nathaniel was the one driving. His windows were tinted. Also, though Wendy's

Starting point is 00:29:05 drive-through footage doesn't show his face, Samantha hadn't been sexually assaulted, meaning there was no semen that could tie it back to Nathaniel. In fact, Nathaniel's DNA wasn't even showing up under Samantha's fingernails. However, police believed that was because Nathaniel was when wearing so much clothing that night that she was never actually able to make skin-to-skin contact with him. If you remember how the person looked on the ATM, there's barely any skin showing. Right now, the only thing they could prove was that Samantha Josephson had been killed inside Nathaniel's car, but not really that he was the one who did it. So the prosecution knew, before we go to trial, we're going to need more evidence. And their best chance at gathering that

Starting point is 00:29:50 was by taking a closer look at the Impala. So as police go to gather more clues, they discover something interesting in Nate's car. In eviction notice that included the name and address of Nate's girlfriend. A woman named Maria Howard. So police go to speak with her hoping she can shed some light on her

Starting point is 00:30:12 now arrested and charged boyfriend. And they get more than they bargained for. She says that the morning Samantha went missing, Nathaniel came to her house and tried to clean his car. He had rubber gloves on and was scrubbing down the console when she saw him grab this knife that had two blades, basically like a multi-tool, that also had blood on it. When she asked him what was going on,

Starting point is 00:30:37 she says he said to mind her own business. He doesn't give her any details. It's clear he's in a panic. So she lets police search her home for any more evidence that might corroborate her side of the story. And she leads the police to the garage where there's a garbage can, which is where, she says, Nate, disposed of many of those cleanup materials. And in there, the clothes. The knife.

Starting point is 00:31:02 Ah, okay. They find the murder weapon. The multi-blade tool that Maria claimed she had seen him with. They also find some of Nathaniel's clothes that are covered in blood, as well as a leather jacket of his that appears to have scratch marks all down the side of it. as if someone was dragging their nels along it, trying to fight back. Now, this is important because it's another, it's his clothing that has evidence on it, not hers, not someone else who could have borrowed the car. Shortly after this, the DNA results came back from the vehicle and it proves it was, in fact,

Starting point is 00:31:38 Samantha's blood and footprint inside the Impala, only strengthening the prosecution's case. Now, some time has gone on, not a lot, but it basically hit the time that should have been the biggest, most celebratory time in Samantha's life. It was her college graduation. There was a seat held in her memory. Her parents were given her degree, the degree which Samantha had worked so hard for and now would never get to pursue. And around the same time, a vigil was held back in Samantha's hometown, friends, family members, and even complete strangers moved. by her story showed up to light a candle for her. Meanwhile, Nathaniel Rowland was skipping his court appearances back in South Carolina

Starting point is 00:32:22 and still proclaiming his innocence. Now, unfortunately, it was going to take two more years for him to face a trial because of COVID. Oh, okay. But come July of 2021, attorneys on both sides are ready to go to battle. Now, arguably, the most important witness in this case was, Nate's girlfriend, the one who lived at the home where the murder weapon was found, Maria Howard.

Starting point is 00:32:49 There was a lot of uncertainty around whether Maria would even agree to testify at the trial. She was worried about her safety, the safety of her young daughter, but at the end of the day, she knew it was the right thing to do. So on day two, she showed up and was called to the witness stand. Which I respect, because I understand being scared. But I also think she probably thinks if I don't testify, people are going to think I'm involved. Which, yeah. She tells the jury not just about Nate coming to her house and cleaning out his car that day,

Starting point is 00:33:19 but also how she had asked him after he cleaned the car out about a visor that she needed to wear for work that she had left in his car. He cleans the car out. Now she can't find it. And he tells Maria it was out, quote, in the country. And when she asked what he was talking about, he mentioned something about how the visor had blood on it and I needed to get rid of it. But after pressing him for more details, he again threatened her to mind her own business. She also mentioned the details about the white sheet that was now covering the back seat, a detail that was validated by the workers and surveillance video out of that Wendy's drive-thru.

Starting point is 00:34:00 Maria said it wasn't until she finally saw something about Samantha's disappearance on the news that she did put it together. She said the reason she didn't immediately report it to police directly was because she didn't know what Nate was. was capable of. She had her young child to worry about. Is she just jumping to conclusions? But Maria wasn't the only important witness called to the stand. There was also the Uber driver that was supposed to pick Samantha up that night. He said he went to the designated pickup spot for Samantha, but when he got there, there was no sign of her. He even said he had called her cell phone, but didn't receive an answer. And then came Osharmar Williams. He owned a cell phone repair shop and his surveillance footage from inside the store showed Nate coming in the morning

Starting point is 00:34:48 Samantha disappeared. He had tried to pawn off Samantha's cell phone. Problem was, what an idiot. What an absolute idiot. Osharmar was only offering $125 for the phone and Nate didn't think it was enough. So he took the phone with him where it was found in his vehicle when he was pulled over by police. Now even more damning, Oshomar got a look at the phone. phone's lock screen and noticed it had a picture resembling Samantha on it. And again, this is helpful because it's Nate, who is the one who's trying to pawn the cell phone off. That's clearly her phone because the witness identifies him and her, which helps against the defense's theory that he had nothing to do with this. Now, as anticipated, the defense tried

Starting point is 00:35:33 to argue everything pointing to Nate was circumstantial. Which is funny because at this point, it's not circumstantial. I mean, the murder weapon was found in his home. Well, and what's crazy is at trial it comes out that they took samples from under Nathaniel's fingernails after he was arrested and they found it was a match for Samantha's genetic material. Plus a pair of gloves, a sock, a bandana, and the knife he threw in Maria's trash, all belonging to him had Samantha's DNA on it. Yeah, open and shut. Now, after six days of testimony, the jury deliberated for an hour and seven minutes. And when they came back, they had all unanimously agreed. Nathaniel Roland was guilty on all charges.

Starting point is 00:36:14 The family had chosen not to pursue the death penalty, but spoke out during his sentencing hearing. Samantha's mother, Marcy, said in court, quote, her dreams were my dreams and her death was my death. I closed my eyes and I feel what she endured at his hands. Which I'm sure, like haunting. Her father Seymour said through tears, quote, do I tell you that I contemplated suicide several times over the past 28 months?

Starting point is 00:36:45 To me, the monster has stolen that bright light, this enthusiasm for life out of me. I tried to stop having these thoughts or desires only because I'm afraid of what this would ultimately do to Sydney, Samantha's sister, and Marcy, which is also just like horrifying. The judge then told Nate that leniency was not in his DNA. and that he was sentencing him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Now, what's unusual about this case is there's really never been a clear motive. As I mentioned, Samantha wasn't sexually assaulted. He didn't know her.

Starting point is 00:37:23 If the motive was robbery, the murder that followed was, like Garrett said, particularly gruesome and uncharacteristic of what we see following robberies gone wrong. So what did Nate want? Was he... Sorry to interrupt, which is scary. These are the scariest types of killers that kill... I mean, every killer is scary, but someone who kills for fun and for pleasure... Well, that's what my mind goes to, is he a serial killer in the making.

Starting point is 00:37:53 Was he just stopped before he could get away with anything else? Was this just a thrill kill? And nothing more. I'm not sure we'll ever really have the answers to those questions. What we do have, though, is some meaningful change. Samantha's death forced lawmakers in South Carolina to pass new legislation, stating that rideshare drivers must display an illuminated sign given to them by the company when picking someone up. Which we see now a lot.

Starting point is 00:38:24 Great. I mean, I guess someone could really fake it if they wanted to. Right. I think it's a great start. So that's awesome. Because this wasn't really a thing back in 2015. Uh-uh. I was not.

Starting point is 00:38:34 And if anyone stops working for the ride share company, it's illegal for them to keep and continue using the sign. It's also illegal to have a fake one. Okay. It was called the Samantha L. Josephson Ride Sharing Safety Act. Since then, the law has sparked national change and in 2023, Samantha's law went into effect federally, which is why we now see this everywhere. This required all rideshare drivers nationally to display illuminated signs. and scannable QR codes to verify their identity before you get in the car. It also criminalized misrepresentation of being a rideshare driver

Starting point is 00:39:12 and promoted more effective background checks for drivers. But the advocacy doesn't even end there. Samantha's family has since established the What's My Name Foundation to educate people about rideshare safety. And they came up with a memorable slogan to help you stay safe when using a ride share app. What's my name? It uses Sammy's name as an acronym. S is for stop.

Starting point is 00:39:37 Before you request a ride, think about where you're headed, and review the app's safety features before you get in. A is for ask. Ask your driver, what is my name before getting in? M is for match. Be sure the make, model, and license plate of the car matches what is listed on the app. And finally, I is for Inform. Share your ride details with a friend using the share status function in these apps, and that is Sammy's acronym.

Starting point is 00:40:08 Now, because Samantha's story shouldn't be a cautionary tell, it should be one about a driven young woman who went on to be a great lawyer, who lived a long, happy life full of success surrounded by family, but one person robbed her of all of that. all it took was one quick Uber ride for Sammy's story to become a warning of what happens when the systems that we implicitly should be able to trust are weaponized against us. This is crazy. Not often do we cover a case where someone is murdered so brutally like that and there's really no motive behind it. That's scary. I forgot to say the female that was riding in the car must have been completely cleared and I think her identity was protected. But yeah, so if you had any questions involving that. That's so sad. Horrible.

Starting point is 00:41:05 Shout out to the family. I'm happy that. There's been change. Yeah, the happy that there's been change. I'm extremely sorry that something this tragic and brutal has happened to them. But I'm happy that they're able to get some change and have a lasting effect. You know, they probably don't even know how many people they've saved. Yeah, probably. Because I'm sure it has been a lot. Maybe not even just murder, but like assault, robbery, so many different things. All right, you guys, that was our episode for this week. And we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

Starting point is 00:41:41 And I hate it. Goodbye.

Murder With My Husband - 303. The Fake Uber Homicide - The Murder of Samantha Josephson

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